|
Body-Builders |
|||
|
Issue 9 from |
|
||
|
In this issue ·
The Community of Perfect Love ·
Feedback For new subscribers: ·
Introducing
“Artios Ministries” |
Welcome to Body-Builders! This is a new series of teaching articles intended to
bless and build the Body of Christ. I trust you enjoy this ninth issue, and I welcome your
feedback. Every blessing, George Alexander For Artios Ministries |
||
|
You
can now subscribe a friend to Body-Builders (and please do!). Just click here.
Your friend will first receive an e-mail offering the chance to
subscribe. (To
update your own information or to unsubscribe, see the links at the end.) |
|||
|
Let’s
look again at some familiar words from John’s first letter: 13By this we know that we
abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14We have seen and testify that
the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus
is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16We have come to know and have
believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides
in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may
have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in
this world. 18There is no
fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 1 Jn 4:13-18 NASU God is forming churches; He’s forming communities. That’s a corporate reality. But the way in to these communities
is to be added, and we’re added as individuals. Picture yourself as an unbeliever. How are you added to God’s community, and
what stages do you then go through? Stage 1 — Entry
The Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of
the world. Whoever confesses that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. You’ve previously lived outside the
community, not really knowing the love of God. Then one day something happens. It may feel sudden, or it may clearly be a gradual process, but
somehow you are impacted by the truth of the gospel. You may hear it proclaimed in public by a
preacher, you may hear it on television or radio, you may hear it through a
friend in conversation, you may read it in print. But however it comes, you begin to understand that, “God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him.”
And something connects within you, you know in your heart that it’s
true, and you respond, placing your faith and trust in Jesus the Son of
God—and you enter in to God’s community. We have come to know and have believed the love
which God has for us. This is what has
happened. We have come to know and
have faith in the love of God. God
is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
There’s a cry for this in the world today. The song by Foreigner from the eighties
echoes and resonates with a whole generation: “I want to know what love is. I want you to show me.”
A hardened and cynical society cries out for a demonstration of
love. What much of the Church takes
for granted would be revolutionary in society, if only the world could see. Stage 2 — Adjustment
So you’re in the community, and you begin
to look around and see how it is and how it works. It’s all new and very different. You may be enrapt.
Everything seems perfect, and you wonder where you’ve been all
your life! You’re thoroughly happy to
be included. But then as the honeymoon phase wanes, you begin
to be aware of imperfections in the other people, and you have a desire to
test the reality of some of the things you see. As well as that, your values and assumptions are being exposed
and challenged, and some adjustments must be made. You live in love.
What does it mean to live in love?
What is love anyway? Most have been taught that love is a powerful
emotion, but in reality love is not primarily an emotion. Love is a commitment. God’s love is His commitment to us. Our love is our commitment to God
and to each other. Love is a desire
for the other’s highest good, and a commitment to it. Love isn’t saying “yes” to everybody’s
demand. Love isn’t “an ocean of
niceness”! Love is tough as
well as nice. Love confronts, love
corrects, love disciplines, love speaks the truth, love says “no” as well as
“yes”, love puts its foot down, love exercises authority. And love covers over a multitude of sins. God is love—and yet He brings correction,
discipline and firmness. Parents know
that it’s not the “loving” thing to do to leave children unrestricted and
uncorrected. In families, love that
leads to growth and maturity operates through authority and
accountability. It’s the same in the
Church, the family of God. Conversely, judgement can result in doing
nothing. “Ephraim is joined to
idols; leave him alone!” (Hos
4:17) God loves you just the way you
are, but too much to leave you that way!
He wants our adjustment. We come in from the outside where it’s all
democratic and “one man one vote”. We
come in to the Kingdom of God, where it’s not democratic—God
rules, not His people! That takes adjustment. We’ve said, “Jesus is Lord!” It’s easy to say, until I realise it means
that I’m not. That takes adjustment. As well as directly, God also works through delegated
authorities, even in the Church—pastors, elders and various church
leaders. Direct authority is easier,
because we’re more confident that He won’t get it wrong. But direct is also easier because if Jesus
says something I don’t like, I can always assume that He didn’t really say
it, it was just my imagination.
However, if delegated authority says something, I find it more
difficult to dismiss it as my imagination!
That takes adjustment. Having entered, we need to learn what love really
means, and how love operates in the community, the family of God. Stage 3 — Security
So you’re settled, you appreciate the way things
are, you’re at home in God’s love.
Now what? Now is the time to grow in security, going deeper
in the work of salvation. Verse 18
says: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because
fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” There are four kinds of fear. There’s natural fear that leads us to pull
back from danger. It’s our defence
mechanism. There’s the fear of Lord,
which the Bible says is the beginning of wisdom. These two are positive.
Then there’s the fear of man, which brings a snare. Lastly, there is a long list of irrational
fears—fear of the future, fear of death, fear of the dark, fear of spiders,
and so on. These last two are
negative, they function as the opposite of faith, and they lead to insecurity. But perfect love casts out fear. God loves us with a perfect love—that’s true, and
it does deal with fear. But we
also need to be perfected or completed in that love. The one who fears is not perfected in
love. Although forgiven, many
still have a fear of punishment or judgement, and it’s rooted in a lack of
abiding in God’s love. By this,
love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of
judgment. God’s love in the
community is perfecting or completing us in love, so that we can be
free from fear, secure in Him and have complete confidence on the day of
judgement. He wants to develop that
security in us. We’re being perfected
in love, and fear is being cast out. Stage 4 — Maturity
We have confidence on the day of judgement
because as He is, so also are we in this world—in other words, because of
Christ-likeness. You as an individual
are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, yes. But the real focus here is on us as a
Body becoming more Christ-like, functioning together like Jesus
Christ on the earth. We have
different personalities, different gifts and abilities, different levels of
revelation and understanding, different emphases, different functions. We each have the same value, but
different tasks to fulfil. We’re
members of a Body, which is greater than the sum of the parts, and which is
truly becoming the Body of Christ. We need each other. Our maturity is in the Body. Then we will no longer be
infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by
every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking
the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head,
that is, Christ. From him the whole
body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds
itself up in love, as each part does its work. Eph 4:14-16 As we abide, love is perfected in us and we are
perfected in love as a community, a corporate Body. And thus we truly are becoming “the community of perfect love”. George Alexander November 2004 Note: All Bible
quotations are NIV unless otherwise stated. |
|||
News and Update |
|||
|
Christmas is almost upon us, and as busy as ever. It seems like no time since last
Christmas, but I understand that’s a sign of age! The article in this issue is a perhaps a little unusual. It’s on the very important subject of
love, and how it relates to corporate maturity. All feedback appreciated. There’s update information on the Artios School of Theology. In addition, there are now links available to previous issues
of Body-Builders that you may have missed. Check out www.artios.org. It’s still under construction, but a
little more helpful than it was! I continue to receive more requests to subscribe to Body-Builders. If you have received this e-mail
second-hand and would like to be subscribed, please click here. If you’d like to subscribe a friend,
please click here. (The
friend will first receive an e-mail offering the chance to subscribe.) If you have difficulty opening these e-mails or if the text looks weird
and you suspect it’s not showing as it was intended to (I know it looks a
little strange in Hotmail for instance), please let me know and I’ll try to
solve the problem. More news and developments soon …. Return to top
|
|||
Previous Body-Builders |
|||
|
You may have missed or
mislaid a previous issue of Body-Builders.
If so, don’t despair! They can
be accessed by clicking the links below: Issue
2 (The Beginning of Life) Issue
3 (Getting the Word Out) Issue
5 (The Purpose of the Church) Issue
6 (Pointers to Personal Purpose) Issue 8 (Laying Hold
of the Word) |
|||
Artios School of Theology |
|||
|
Artios School of
Theology is a modular course leading to a Diploma in Theology from Artios
Ministries. The first run of the
School, with classes held in Dunfermline, is currently under way. The first
module, Old Testament Survey, had eighteen students enrolled, and was
completed in June. The second module,
“Acts of the Apostles” is currently running with seventeen students, and will
finish in December. The next module will
be “Gifts and Ministries”, and registration is now open. Classes will be held in Dunfermline
starting in January. For more
information on the Artios School of Theology, please click here*. For specific information on the next
module, please click here. At present, the course cannot be offered
by extension (distance learning), but it is hoped to make this available in
the future. * If you tried this
and it didn’t work, you may have to download an Acrobat Reader first. This is available free of charge from Adobe. To get it, click here. |
|||
Introducing Artios Ministries
|
|||
|
Artios Ministries is a new ministry launched
officially in October 2003. The Founder and Director is George
Alexander. For 12 years, George pastored Liberty Church in Dunfermline,
Scotland, before being released in 1997 to a wider teaching ministry. The
aims of Artios Ministries are: 1.
To proclaim the Christian doctrine and principles through teaching,
literature, and other means 2.
To provide Biblical education and ministry training 3.
To promote good practice and sound doctrine in the Church of Jesus
Christ Artios
Ministries is a charitable trust recognised in Scotland as Scottish Charity
number SC 034194. |
|||
|
“Artios” is
a Greek word occurring in the New Testament. It means, “complete,
fitted, completely qualified, with all its needed parts”. It
occurs, together with another word derived from it, in 2 Timothy
3:16,17 “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work.” RSV |
|||
|
Contact Information |
|||
|
Difficulties or Comments? Just click here and let us know. |
Artios Ministries 13 Whinhill Dunfermline Fife KY11 4YZ U.K. |
01383-739537 (+44-1383-739537) |
|
|
© Copyright 2004 Artios Ministries |
|||
